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First a little story. Some thirty years ago I was president of a small, local, Historical Society. The reason for it's existence was that a small, German, religious sect emigrated in 1804 and built a small village here in Western Pennsylvania. In 1814 they sold it to the Mennonites, moved to Indiana and built another small town. This they sold to Robert Owens in 1824 and moved back to W. Pa and founded Economy, their last settlement. The society dissolved about 1906 (they had adopted celibacy and so just petered out). At the time I'm referring to, early 1960's, there were many people living who's parents lived during the later period of the"Harmonites". Folk Lore abounded (always more interesting than the facts). I proposed talking to some of the more senior residents, have children of members of the Society and High Schoolers take tape recorders and interview those who were willing to participate. My purpose was twofold. 1. To get the kids involved in their local history. 2. To correlate the stories to see if mutual threads could be obtained. A second project was to survey all the buildings in town to ascertain which ones were original. They only used about 4 floor plans and they prefabricated and stored the parts until needed. I could not get either of these projects off the ground. The reason??? 'THEY ARE TOO MUCH HISTORY'!! The membership's idea of the function of the Historical Society was to baby sit a couple of buildings and taking visitors through on week ends. Those lovely folk tales went to the grave, untold. Now you might rightly ask "What in h***'s name does this have to do with us"!!! Well at times I feel that some topics or projects are ignored because "IT'S TOO MUCH PARKINSONS". Now before I am burnt at the stake for heresy, let me state that in no way do I want to infer that what appears on this List is trivial or inconsequential. I personally have learnt a tremendous amount from all of you. It just appears to me that when ever some one attempts to leap over the wall to deal with subjects other than our immediate concerns i.e new drugs, dosages, symptoms, horror stories about neuros all of which I agree to be of the utmost importance, we seem less than enthusiastic with our support and encouragement. I refer to Dale's GRASS ROOTS, Ernie's SEX SURVEY (Ernie, more appropriate title NO-SEX SURVEY???) Margaret T.'s request for members State info. Marjorie M's more ambitious project, a world wide survey, a map with pins stuck in to indicate concentrations of PWP. I reached the age of 60 never having met a PWP. The first one I met, unfortunately, was myself. Does this mean that I was raised in an area where PD was not prevalent? Does it mean I was to self-centered to have noticed it in others (a possibility)" Does in mean that when I moved to a different locality I became more susceptible to it? Yes, you're right. These questions can probably never be answered, but oh to have people willing and ready to ask them. We will never find a mutant gene that is the cause of our problem; never discover a miracle drug; never be on the cutting edge of research; but by keeping the pressure on, letting people other than our selves know that we are aware, interested and not willing to be put on the back burner who knows what can be achieved. Let's get behind any or all of our members when they are willing to put their time and energy into a project. Not "Apathy" but "Application" is what is needed. Sure. Maybe it is just whistling in the dark, but who knows? Somebody might hear and light a candle. Joe Young (64 dx 92) [log in to unmask]